By Daniel Feuerstein | Sunday, March 1st | Harrison, NJ
Four goal First Half was all they needed to win
Red Bull New York 2 opened their title defense at Sports Illustrated Stadium against Columbus Crew 2 with a roaring start. This match was the first for new head coach Dominik Wohlert, in charge, and he loved what he saw from his players as they were relentless on the attack and continued to press forward every time they had the ball. After the full 90 minutes were over, the Red Bulls earned their first win of the 2026 season by a final score of four goals to two.
Roald Mitchell continued his torrid goal-scoring pace when he bagged a brace. His first goal was setup witha long ball from their own end of the pitch down the near side toward Tanner Rosborough. He delivered a cross, but the ball was cleared, but not out. Red Bulls 2 recovered and continued to press, but the ball deflected off a defender. Mitchell, on his horse, recovered, made a run, took a hard shot that was stopped by the keeper, but not enough as the ball rolled harmfully over the goal line in the 29th minute.
On his second goal a bit of a give-and-go between Juan Mina and Rafael Mosquera at the far side. Mina would attack toward the area and deliver a fabulous low cross toward Mitchell on a diagonal trajectory, and all Mitchell had to do was take it one time and roof it inside the back post and the upper near 90 for his second of the game in the 44th minute. Roald Mitchell had a fabulous match, and he’s looking like his old self once again.
“I feel like I’m quicker than most players. So the first goal, I had the momentum, the ball came to me as it got deflected, the second goal, I got in a good striker position, back post. The assist, I saw Rafa (Mosquera), and the goal,” said Mitchell.
Tanner Rosborough got the scoring started inside the early minutes of the match as he took advantage of a poor defensive shape from Crew 2. After a long clearance from the Red Bulls 2 defense, the Crew 2 side lazily tried to recover the ball along the far side touchline at midfield. Coming in and stealing the ball was Rafael Mosquera, and off to the races he went. As soon as Mosquera got close enough to the area, he saw Rosborough trailing on the play and delivered a low cross just outside of the Crew 2 area, and Rosborough delivered a hard low bender that tucked inside the far post in the 8th minute.
Mosqueara had a banner day as well, with two assists and scoring the third goal of the match to get the two-goal lead at the time. Omar Valencia received the ball along the near side touchline and made a brilliant move ot get the ball past his defender and went around him to start his attacking run. He delivered a strong cross that found Mitchell just on the outside of the area, and on the far side, he saw Mosquera onside and delivered a quick ball toward him, and Mosquera took the hard shot to make it three goals to one in the 36th minute.
Dominik Wohlert earned his first win as the head coach of the club and must be very happy to get the full three points. While he wasn’t happy about giving up a late goal inside first half stoppage time toearse a three-goal lead into a two-goal lead, he made sure he told his players that they needed to concentrate better and they had a great second half preventing Crew 2 from earning any more goals. A bad moment came for Nehuen Benedetti as he left the match injured, as he stepped wrong somewhere with a non-contact injury. Deven Cadigan came on for him in the 15th minute.
“Awesome, awesome feeling, really happy for all the guys. I think they put a shift in, and it’s never that easy to know where you’re at first match day. And I think they did a good job. And really happy for them that they can get a reward with three points. So all credit to them,” said Head Coach Dominik Wohlert.
Their next match at Sports Illustrated Stadium is on Saturday, March 7th, against Inter Miami CF II at 5 PM Eastern. Head over to the Stadium, or watch it live at MLS Next Pro.com or OneFootball.com
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